Barcelona survived a scare against Real Betis to book their place in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey after a 6-3 aggregate victory.

Pep Guardiola's side looked assured of their place in the last four after cruising to a 5-0 win in the first leg, but were quickly on the rack as two goals in the opening seven minutes from Jorge Molina set second-tier Betis on the way to a 3-1 win.

The result brought an end to Barca's record run of 28 games unbeaten.

The start was a humiliating one for a Barca team which, while weakened, still
boasted the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Javier Mascherano and Gerard Pique.

And Messi it was who restored some Catalan pride seven minutes before the break
as he fired home to reduce the deficit and leave Betis needing to score seven
goals to progress.

In the end the hosts could manage just one more goal, through Arzu on the
stroke of half-time, but Barca's humiliation was not yet quite complete, with
Messi's uncharacteristic penalty miss in the second period typifying a poor
display by the Primera Division leaders.

In the night's other quarter-final second leg, Almeria beat Deportivo La Coruna 3-2 to complete a 4-2 aggregate win and secure their place in the final four for the first time.

Corona opened the scoring for Almeria in the 19th minute while Albert Crusat
made it 2-0 just 60 seconds later.

Depor fought back onto level terms through Pablo Alverez's penalty two minutes
before the break and Adrian Lopez's header seven minutes after the restart.

But Henok Goitom's penalty put Almeria out of sight in the 55th minute to
secure a semi-final berth against Barca.